There are a few main sources to collect the raw materials for this project. If you sew, you will already have definitely realized that you have lots of small scraps of fabric. In this case the journey will be easier for you. Clothing from your closet or close family that you were thinking of getting rid of is a wonderful source of fabric. Another source is charity stores, op shops and the recycle industry. If you have access to the textile industry, they will be very pleased to let you have their offcuts.
You need to organize your fabric scraps so that you will actually use them in new projects. The scrap pieces should be organized into a range of sizes and stored accordingly. The system that works for me is to organize by seasonal colors, spring, summer, autumn and winter
While sewing, keep containers at the ready for different size scraps for different types of projects. Very small ones for mosaic, longer thin strips for wave, strips for strip piecing, squares and rectangles. Anything smaller than that goes to a mix remnant pile with remnants of batting to be used for stuffing for dolls and pillows or for bead making. Hardly anything gets thrown away.
You could start by storing them in ziplock bags, grouped together by size with safety pins, and then moving onto shoe boxes. Glue a piece of fabric from the relevant color family onto the front of the box so it is easy to tell what is inside. As your collection grows, because it will, believe me, you can move on to larger cardboard boxes or plastic containers.
Using a pixel - crumb technique I am able to create very large abstract fabric pieces which can be used for many products. Wall art, quilted throws. curtains, pillows and even as fabric for creating bags and clothing.
It is an ongoing technique. The fun part of it is that you can sew with abandon without having to plan anything other than choosing a color family. You can mix floral with stripes, solids with patterns, in short anything goes.
It can be used to create patchwork bed quilts.
This technique is a wonderful scrap quilting technique for using up all sizes of fabrics. Strips, squares, rectrangles, large and small. Floral, stripes, squares and solids, all are good. I perfer to use geometric pieces when sewing with the crumb technique
The products that can be created with this technique are endless.
Table runners.
Quilted pillows
Bags
Pouches
Wallart
And even jewelry
Our tutorials can be found here on Etsy
and here on the site